A ranking of business schools' alumni

Network effects

A FORMER boss at The Economist—an INSEAD alumna—once confided that, although she prided herself that her door was always open, fellow graduates from the French business school might find the door "slightly more ajar than others". Business school gives one many advantages—a framework with which to analyse problems, a sturdy knowledge of business theory—but perhaps the most important of all is a network of other successful people to tap into. Whether searching for job, seeking funding for a start-up or on the hunt for someone to help with a project, friendly help is always at hand.

Every business school makes a fuss about how wonderful its alumni network is. But the reality isn't always so rosy. Maintaining a close-knit community of graduates takes effort. It means keeping in contact with people as they pursue successful careers across the globe. It means running events and top-up classes for them for many years after they leave. And perhaps most importantly, it means convincing students while they are on campus that the institution is worth maintaining a passion for throughout their lives.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, American schools do this best. They, after all, have the biggest incentive, being the world leaders at tapping into their alumni networks to secure huge financial gifts. Such schools spend a lot of resources on maintaining relations with ex-students. And, as the best schools also tend to be old and big, this means keeping tabs on an awful lot of people. Harvard Business School, for example, has 44,500 registered MBA alumni.

But which school has the most useful alumni? Each year, The Economist asks students to rate their school's network. The top ten from our 2014 survey are listed below. Nine of the ten are in the US. Highest rated of all is the Tuck school at Dartmouth. Its fierce collegiate spirit is famous, perhaps fostered by its setting in the small, sleepy town of Hanover, New Hampshire, which means that students have little else to do but bond.

So American bschools have the best network... in the US. How about finding an oil and gas expert in Kyrgyzstan, an alumina and bauxite expert in Dubai, a wine expert in Sydney, an eCommerce expert in Jakarta? Only INSEAD can give you such a wide-ranging network across so many industries and geographies. In such a globalized world, having a very strong network in one country, even when it is the world's biggest economy, is not enough. And as an HBS alumnus who graduated with Mitt Romney told me, there is the "network", e.g. the HBS stamp, and then there is the network of presidents and other people in power, which you won't have access to.

I beg to differ snbury.
Your point is well taken about the depth and breath of networks being a forgotten factor in American schools but INSEAD is not the only, nor maybe even the best. IMD's network is incredible for this....
Perhaps we should include a network-off in future MBATs? :-)

We have some valuable takeaways from this list. First thing is institution's reputation and student bonding are two separate and independent things. They don't compliment each other.

Except for Stanford GSB and tuck,You don't find any global top five in the top half of the list.It is interesting to see the alumni ranking the seemingly less reputed institutions ahead of Harvard Business School.

I feel, this is one area where the top institutions have a lot to learn from the smaller Institutions.

Interesting seeing UNC in there, reminded of how Dixie legal markets tend to place a lot of value on local connections. It's too easy to lose associates to bigger NY firms, so they want to see some reason why you'll stay in Atlanta - a spouse, a degree, or something. It would be interesting to see those effects here - that is, UNC's alum network is more valuable because the demand for local connections is higher in the Triangle than in New York.